Homing beacon

This article is about the homing beacon, a tracking device.
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"You're sure the homing beacon is secure aboard their ship? I'm taking an awful risk, Vader. This had better work."

―Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin^[1]

A homing beacon, homing device, locator beacon, tracer, tracer beacon, tracking device, or pulsing beacon was used to track starships or any other entity being transported. Capable of transmitting data enormous distances, homing beacons could relay the position of a ship even after several hyperspace jumps.

Description[]

Homing beacons were small devices that allowed an individual to track a starship across the galaxy. The beacon had an internal hyperspace transponder which transmits a short-burst, coded hyperspace signal. The signal was recorded every time it crossed an S-thread. Ships traveling through hyperspace crossed at least one S-thread an hour, allowing a homing beacon to accurately track a target.^[2]

S-threads were linked to the HoloNet, and the beacon's signal was automatically logged and sent to the beacon's control computer. The computer could extrapolate a possible destination from the data, and once the ship dropped out of hyperspace, it broadcast its position with was accurate to within a parsec. Homing beacons could track a ship's exact movements, which in turn could be used to reveal the position of related locations, such as bases, facilities, or rendezvous points.^[2]

Imperial beacons used non-mass HoloNet transceivers located in hyperspatial "S-threads" to track ships through hyperspace. When a homing beacon passed a transceiver, the incident was logged; allowing trackers to determine the heading of a vessel from a collection of these reports.

Many homing beacons were miniaturized, so as to prevent detection by the crew of the ship being tracked. As such, they could be hidden either inside of the ship or tucked in some crevice on the ship's exterior; in fact, some beacon models were small enough to be thrown towards a departing ship's hull.

History[]

Empire 15 06 — A XX-23 homing beacon aboard the *Millennium Falcon*

Obi-Wan Kenobi used such a device on Slave I in order to track Jango Fett to Geonosis just prior to the start of the Clone Wars. Around 3 ABY, IG-88B used a set of ultra-small microtracers to track Boba Fett, Dengar, Bossk, Zuckuss, 4-LOM and their ships, in an attempt to have them do the work of tracking down Han Solo for him.

Grand Master Yoda also used a homing beacon to be tracked by Bail Organa and escape from Palpatine and his shock troopers in Coruscant.

The Empire also used a similar device to track the Millennium Falcon in order to discover the location of the hidden Rebel base on Yavin 4. The beacon was planted aboard the Falcon by a HMOR homing droid.

Drooim-Durtha Systems was a corporation, specializing in the development and manufacturing of tracking devices.

Homing beacons can also be used in an offensive manner, as evidenced by the Heinsnake Cult using a homing beacon to have the the basis fire an energy ray to obliterate a Venator-class Star Destroyer.